by Anna Fargher
‘Over here, Pie!’ Gabriel barked again. ‘We need to see the Great Stag!’
The large magpie darted his gaze to them and, seeing Pip and her umbrella, his eyes widened. Letting out a whistle and a clack, he disappeared again. Seconds later a scratching sounded as the tangle of thorns at their paws shuddered apart, revealing a hidden path slanting deep beneath the web of branches above.
‘Come on!’ Madeleine bounded forward and at once the animals followed her and Gabriel down the secret passage. As they cleared the entrance, Pip turned to look over her shoulder and watched two tattered badgers drag thick screens of thorns together, and close them inside.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE MAQUIS
Henri rushed forward along a dusty path into a secret glade, descending steeply below a dense roof of brambles. Barbed trunks stretched tall, creating a maze of spiked arches and corridors, veiling them in shadow with only a glimmer of daylight visible through the tangle of branches.
‘We need to take cover!’ said Pie the magpie urgently as the shrill cries of the Butcher Birds grew louder overhead. ‘They’ll be scanning the ground for you and they may spot any movement beneath the thorns – follow me!’
Swiftly beating his wings, Pie led them to a place where the brambles enveloped a tall, rotten tree that had collapsed a long time ago against another trunk, forming a large gap beneath. The magpie and the wolves hurried inside and Henri skidded to a halt, his antlers clashing against the bark as he frantically ducked his head and squeezed himself inside.
None of them dared to breathe as they spied the shrikes swarming over the canopy of thorns. One settled upon the brambles above them and cocked its black-masked head, listening for signs of life. Pip trembled beneath, fearing they would hear her heart hammering against her ribs. A long minute passed before it launched into the air again, joining the abattoir of shrikes travelling east through the forest, and the animals sighed with relief as their shrill, shrieking cries faded into the blustering wind.
Pie peered out from under the trunk and launched into the air, leading the way through the maze of brambles again with Henri and the wolves cantering behind. Taking a sharp turn to the left, the animals arrived at the entrance of an earthen cave that gaped from a sheer slope. A large beehive dangled above the opening, and, as the magpie approached with a whistle and a clack, hundreds of bees leaped from their nest, revealing a golden honeycomb beneath.
‘Don’t worry,’ Pie said, landing on Gabriel’s back and seeing Henri, Pip and Madame Fourcade’s eyes widen in alarm. ‘The bees are our scouts and gatekeepers. We know each other well.’
The bees swirled about them, whispering excitedly as their furry claws tickled Pip and the umbrella, then Madame Fourcade and Henri. But on reaching GI Joe they darted back to their nest with a whirr of unease.
The animals entered the cave, the air inside musty and cool. As daylight faded into the distance behind them, Pip blinked, seeing a yellow-green dot flash before her eyes. Another gleamed in the gloom to her left and a moment later she gaped in wonder as countless little lights glittered all around.
‘Fireflies!’ Pip said, feeling feet flutter on her outstretched paw.
Rounding a corner, the glow of light intensified with bioluminescent mushrooms growing up the walls, illuminating a cavern under a huge ceiling of roots, with a dozen bats hanging upside down from its woody tendrils.
The Great Stag stood in the centre with a young ermine and a canary on his back. He dwarfed Henri from the size of his hooves to the points on his antlers, decorated with webs of silk shimmering under the light of the fireflies like a ghostly crown. Dangling above his head at the centre of an elaborate pattern was a spider with her legs stretched out in an eight-pointed star.
‘Who are you?’ The Great Stag scowled, turning to Henri with a stamp of his hoof. His voice was commanding and gruff with age. ‘How did you find us?’
‘My name is Madame Fourcade,’ the hedgehog said, standing tall upon Henri’s head. ‘I am the leader of Noah’s Ark and we have come for your help.’
‘Is that the Umbrella Mouse?’ The Great Stag blinked with disbelief, seeing Pip and the hedgehog, beneath the umbrella cradled in Henri’s antlers.
As he padded over to them, the canary and the ermine on his back hurried up his neck to get a better view of the new arrivals from the top of his head, and the bats swung from their perches on the ceiling as their big ears pricked. Pip gazed into the Great Stag’s face, greying around his eyes and nose, and swallowed.
‘I know you by reputation, of course,’ he continued. ‘No one has ever freed human and animal prisoners from a camp before – the enemy is incensed! If all Resistance fighters were like you, we’d have rid our country of the invaders a long time ago. I am Gaspard, the head of this small, independent band of Resistance fighters we call the Maquis,’ he said, darting his gaze to the other animals in the cavern. ‘We have protected this side of the forest for generations.’
‘We found them crossing into your territory,’ Gabriel the white wolf said, sitting on his haunches.
‘And they’re lucky we did,’ Madeleine said, her silver eyes glistening in the firefly light. ‘The Rogue Wolves were about to feed and the Butcher Birds were not far behind.’
‘If you have led the Rogue Wolves and the Butcher Birds to our cavern,’ Gaspard’s voice boomed, ‘then you are killing us all! Our size and stealth are the reasons we have never been found and we do not wish to be drawn into a fight we did not start!’
‘We got away!’ Pip cried, ignoring the blood thudding in her ears. The wolves and the magpie nodded and Gaspard’s scowl eased. ‘We have come for your help.’ She peered up at him, staring down his nose at her. ‘Our friend – this pigeon, GI Joe – is gravely ill and we have heard of your knowledge of nature’s medicines – it’s his only hope.’
‘That bird –’ the spider frowned, gliding along her webs strung between Gaspard’s antlers to get a closer look at the pigeon – ‘has the scent and pallor of death.’
‘Please . . .’ Pip crept forward, clasping her paws against her heart. ‘He is one of the bravest members of the Resistance. Without him the whole of Noah’s Ark would have been captured by the Butcher Birds and the escape from the Nacht und Nebel camp would never have succeeded.’
‘What happened to him?’ asked the canary standing between Gaspard’s ears as the ermine’s nose twitched beside him.
‘We’re not sure,’ Madame Fourcade replied. ‘He lost consciousness before he could tell us.’
‘We thought he’d died with two more of our friends in the fire at the camp,’ Pip said solemnly, her throat tightening with thoughts of Hans and Léon, ‘but somehow he survived and flew back to warn us that we were in danger. If he made it out alive, there’s a chance our other friends did too, but we may never find out if we lose him now.’
‘Very well.’ Gaspard sighed. ‘Amélie –’ he glanced up at the spider hanging from his horns – ‘it’s your magic, not mine.’
Amélie cast a sail of silk from her body and launched into the air, closing the gap between the stags in an elegant swing between their antlers. A group of fireflies floated to her as she scuttled to GI Joe, and illuminated her eight legs moving feverishly over the pigeon’s blackened feathers. Pip, Madame Fourcade and Henri held their breath, hoping that life remained inside their friend.
‘He’s not as burned as he looks,’ Amélie muttered, inspecting his feathers, still unevenly covered with soot. ‘He’s badly undernourished and dehydrated, but he’s alive.’ She looked up at Gaspard from GI Joe’s listless body. Pip and Madame Fourcade’s whiskers pricked upon their cheeks and Henri’s tail wagged. ‘Barely,’ she added, seeing their faces brighten. ‘I can’t promise we can save him, but we can try.’
‘Doing something is always better than doing nothing,’ Madame Fourcade said.
‘Quickly,’ Amélie said, summoning more fireflies with her top two legs, ‘go and gather as much moss you can. Squeeze
out the moisture and bring it back here.’
The space darkened as the fireflies’ glow swiftly darted to the far reaches of the cavern and disappeared sharply to the right.
‘Umbrella Mouse.’ Amélie waved down at her, the light of the bioluminescent mushrooms casting her in a dim, green shadow.
Pip clambered up Henri’s antlers to crouch beside the spider and GI Joe. ‘Pip,’ she said, offering her paw to her.
‘I hoped we’d meet one day.’ Amélie shook it with a smile as the cloud of fireflies returned and floated around Henri’s antlers. ‘A deeper part of this cavern has a tiny opening on to a marshland filled with sphagnum moss.’ Amélie pointed to the fireflies’ claws, filled with green sponge. A firefly fluttered to Pip and passed some to her. It was cold and smelt earthy and old. ‘It has healed men for hundreds of years, and animals for much longer. When it is woven with my silk, it will absorb any sickness inside his body and hopefully deliver a cure in its place.’
Pip and the fireflies applied the moss to GI Joe’s wounds while Amélie climbed upon him and spun it to him with her silk, tightly wrapping him in a bandage filled with medicine, until only his face showed through the weave.
‘What happens to him now?’ Pip asked, gazing at his cocoon. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him, and shuddered at the pain he must have felt trying to find Noah’s Ark and warn them the Milice were coming. He’d saved all their lives at the risk of his own again and she would do anything to give his strength back to him.
Amélie sighed. ‘We wait.’
CHAPTER FIVE
SUSPICION
‘Now you must answer some questions, Madame,’ Gaspard said firmly as the fireflies delivered Amélie back to her web, spiralling between his antlers, and then spread themselves across the cavern like little stars. ‘We may have heard of each other, but we are strangers. We’ve done what you asked, even though you’ve risked exposing us to the enemy in more ways than one . . .’
‘Then let’s talk leader to leader,’ Madame Fourcade offered, unafraid of his tone. ‘The human Allied armies are nearing Paris and the Resistance is preparing to liberate the city. We must help them—’
‘Something is far more pressing that that, Madame,’ Gaspard interrupted, and the hedgehog’s quills stiffened. ‘What if your friend has been turned by the enemy? To survive the fire and suddenly reappear at the same time as the Butcher Birds is suspicious, to say the least.’
‘Didn’t his mate betray your group?’ asked the canary perched on Gaspard’s head beside the ermine.
‘How do you know about Lucia?’ Pip frowned, squirming at the thought of her.
‘The forest isn’t just talking about the Umbrella Mouse,’ the canary went on, puffing his chest feathers with confidence. ‘Rumours have also spread about the Axis pigeon that attacked Noah’s Ark from within. The heart can sway loyalties and your friend’s wouldn’t be the first. He might be an enemy agent now.’
Pip gazed at GI Joe and wondered if it were possible Lucia could have turned him into an enemy spy, and promptly shook the thought from her head. She’d seen his fury when he’d discovered Lucia’s betrayal. He would have killed her before he joined her – Pip was sure of it.
‘As far as we know,’ Henri said, ‘Lucia was killed in the fire along with two other members of Noah’s Ark.’
‘But now that GI Joe has survived you must question whether she has too,’ the ermine remarked.
‘No matter how much we admire her for the great escape, the Umbrella Mouse is putting us all in jeopardy.’ The canary’s feathers ruffled around his neck. ‘If the Butcher Birds are closing in, then time is running out before the Milice catch you and whoever else is by your side. The Maquis are strong because we do not join wider Resistance networks. We should have turned Noah’s Ark away and let that pigeon perish from his wounds.’
‘How dare you say that!’ Pip said furiously, a hot tremor of indignation tingling the fur along her spine. ‘GI Joe would never betray us. He was willing to sacrifice his life in the Nacht und Nebel camp and he fought on D-Day for your freedom and mine.’ Her eyes narrowed as she looked the yellow bird up and down. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself. Show him some respect.’
‘You must understand, little one,’ Gaspard said gravely, ‘the Milice are a merciless organization. They’re more dangerous than the Nazis themselves because they’re our countrymen. They know our culture and our geography. They blend in easily and they’re ruthlessly efficient in crushing anyone resisting the enemy regime.’
‘And they’ll never stop chasing the Umbrella Mouse,’ the canary added. Pip’s heart began to thud. ‘They know she’s the Resistance’s treasure. Our scouts are returning every day with reports of the Butcher Birds. Madeleine and Gabriel were attacked and—’
‘Enough!’ Madame Fourcade yelled. ‘There is no hope for our liberation if we fight amongst ourselves. The Resistance needs to unite against the enemy! Not turn on their friends!’
‘Alas, none of us is safe from treachery,’ Gaspard remarked. ‘Anyone connected to you is in danger. Torture dissolves loyalty.’
‘Treachery has always been our biggest peril, yet we carry on,’ Madame Fourcade cried. ‘We must vow never to give information to the invaders – if we’re caught, we lie. If we’re imprisoned, we escape by whatever means we can.’
‘And the enemy is hunting with this intensity, not just because of Pip and wanting revenge for the escape from Nacht und Nebel camp, but because they’re scared of her,’ Henri added. ‘They know they’re losing the war now the Allied armies are advancing towards Paris. It’s fortunate to have her, not a curse.’
‘But the more everyone knows about her, the more danger she is in herself,’ Madeleine the grey wolf said. ‘She should stay in a small group who can protect her from capture. I am happy to volunteer.’
‘Me too.’ Gabriel wagged his tail beside his mate.
‘Thank you.’ Madame Fourcade smiled. ‘We appreciate any help you can give us. We’ll go now. Then we’ll be no threat to the rest of you.’
‘No!’ Gaspard stamped his hoof. ‘I cannot let you leave before we know what side your friend is on.’
‘But he’s unconscious!’ Pip cried. ‘He won’t know where he’s been or who he’s seen.’
‘But you could talk!’ the canary shrieked back. ‘Then he’ll trap us all!’
Shouts of outrage erupted from Noah’s Ark and the Maquis. As their anger reached a bitter din, none of the animals noticed a pair of amber eyes flutter open.
‘Liddle lady?’ GI Joe blinked groggily. Pip looked down at the pigeon and nearly jumped out of her skin. ‘Is that you?’
‘Everybody, shhhhh!’ Pip yelled over the furore. ‘GI Joe’s waking up!’
A hush abruptly descended over the animals as the fireflies closed in and lifted her and the pigeon free from Henri’s antlers, suspending them in the air in the middle of the cavern.
‘Yes, it’s me, GI!’ Pip beamed, tenderly resting her paws on his cocoon.
‘It’s good to see you.’ He smiled, his voice gruff and sticky with thirst. ‘Where are we? How long was I out for? Is it just me or am I seeing stars?’
‘They’re fireflies,’ Henri said softly, watching the pigeon’s brow furrow with confusion as he floated in the middle of the cavern. ‘We’re deep in the forest with another Resistance group, the Maquis.’
‘Henri? Is that you, buddy?’ GI Joe said, trying to lift his head in the direction of Henri’s voice.
‘Something’s wrong.’ His eyes widened with fear. ‘I can’t move!’ Panic seized his voice as he wriggled in his rigid cocoon from side to side. ‘What’s happened?’
‘It’s all right, GI,’ Madame Fourcade said calmly. ‘You’re swaddled inside a medicinal bandage . . .’
‘Made from a spider’s web and sphagnum moss,’ Pip added.
‘A creepy-crawly and a whosie-what-moss?’ The pigeon frowned, and Amélie the spider crossed her upper arms, offended. ‘
How long have I gotta stay in this thing?’
‘For as long as you can stand it,’ said Madame Fourcade. GI Joe opened his beak to protest, but the hedgehog silenced him with a stern glance from where she stood on Henri’s head and he knew he couldn’t argue. ‘You saved Noah’s Ark from the Butcher Birds. We split up and got out just in time.’
‘I’m glad, Madame.’ GI Joe sighed with relief.
‘The Milice is still patrolling our territory,’ said Gaspard, stepping forward and peering at the pigeon. ‘We’ll know more when our scouts return.’
The pigeon frowned, gawping at the huge stag with the spider hanging from his antlers, and the canary scowling upon his head beside the ermine, standing tall on her hind legs. ‘Who are you?’
‘My name is Gaspard,’ said the Great Stag silkily. ‘I’m the leader of the Maquis. I believe it is high time we got to know one another.’
GI Joe’s interrogation had begun.
CHAPTER SIX
FRIEND OR FOE?
‘He’s on our side.’ Pip’s jaw hardened as she stared into Gaspard’s eyes, gleaming ghostly green in the glow of the mushrooms and the fireflies.
GI Joe was silent as his gaze darted to Madame Fourcade.
‘We’d ask the same questions had you just arrived at Noah’s Ark’s hideout without warning,’ the hedgehog said, and Pip swallowed, remembering her first meeting with the group after she landed in Normandy with Hans and the umbrella. They hadn’t been friendly at all.
‘It’s all right, kid,’ GI Joe cooed softly, reading the furrows on Pip’s brow.
‘Your friends tell me that you were instrumental in the escape from the Nacht und Nebel camp,’ Gaspard said, looking down his nose at the pigeon from his full height.
GI Joe nodded. ‘That’s correct.’
‘And it was the Umbrella Mouse’s idea?’